Sport
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Tennis
Capriati rides a miraculous comeback to retain title
By Nirmal Shekar
MELBOURNE, JAN. 26. As the young woman sat there in her chair under the court-side umbrella, making a valiant attempt to fight back the tears which co-mingled with bubbling sweat on her sun-burnt face on a scaldingly hot afternoon at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne Park, what struck you was the unrelenting cruelty of sport.
A few feet away from the shattered young woman - Martina Hingis - who was going through the worst that sport has to offer was an older one, Jennifer Capriati, experiencing the exhilaration of triumph on a big stage, almost floating in the warm air, going through the very best that sport has to offer.
If you think such stark emotional contrasts are what sport is all about, that these are things that make the best of sport such a riveting spectacle, then think again. For, never in recent times in a Grand Slam championship have winning and losing been so close - separated by the thinnest of margins - and, finally, so far apart as it turned out to be in the women's singles final of the Australian Open on Saturday.
The world will look upon Jennifer Capriati's believe- it-or-not comeback from a set and 0-4 down to finally beat Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-2 in two hours and 10 minutes to retain her title as one the greatest fightbacks in Grand Slam tennis.
To a point, that is true. For, this was not only the first time in 46 years that a woman had come back from matchpoint down - Capriati fought off four in the second set - to win the final here but also the first time in 75 years that any player, male or female, had staved off four matchpoints before winning a final.
In 1927, when it would have taken a few weeks to get here from the United States or Europe, G.Patterson saved four matchpoints at 12-13 and one at 15-16 in the fourth set before beating J.Hawkes in the final.
But, for all such impressive statistics, to tell you the truth, this was, in the first place, a match that was lost by a player who almost seems to have forgotten how to win in the title round rather than one that was won in spectacular fashion by someone who, only last year here, mastered the art of winning on the big stage.
In the old days, when she was younger and unaccustomed to such agony as she lived through today, Hingis knew how to win on the big day. And she did it as a matter of habit, as part of her routine.
But, without a Grand Slam singles final victory in three years - her last title had come here in 1999 - the remarkably intelligent and crafty Swiss Miss seems to have lost her feel for winning.
Winning, after all, is more mind than matter on the big day. And while Hingis did very well when all that mattered was ball playing skills and strategic intelligence, finally, when it came to an examination of the mind, she broke down.
Predictably, on a day when the peak temperature touched 35.2 degrees, soon Hingis failed the physical examination too as her legs gave up and a delighted Capriati, four years her senior, sneaked in to take the match away from the former three- time champion.
``I really didn't know if I could make it today. I don't know how I won today,'' said Capriati who had beaten Hingis in straight sets in last year's final here. ``Conditions-wise this was the toughest match I have played.''
Controlling the match from almost the very first point, Hingis stood a handshake away from victory, so to say, as she led 4-0 in the second set. Then she played a poor service game to lose serve and made a few nervous unforced errors again in the seventh game on serve.
For all that, she did break Capriati's serve in the eighth game and then, serving for the title, had her first matchpoint at 2.53 p.m. Capriati hit a superb backhand crosscourt winner. In the 12th game, Hingis lost matchpoint No.2 on an unforced forehand error before Capriati fought off the third with a volley winner.
In the tiebreak, matchpoint No.4 came and went with a Hingis backhand error and once Capriati took the second set with a backhand winner, there was only one player left in the match - not even the 15 minute break was enough to revive a demoralised Hingis. There was token resistance from Hingis as she led 2-1 with a break in the decider but the American won at will from there to capture her third career Grand Slam title, an hour and eight minutes after Hingis, for the first time, was a point away from winning it.
``I didn't have it to close it out today. I am overwhelmed with feelings,'' said Hingis after receiving the runner-up trophy for the third time in three years.
Overwhelmed or not, it is going to take a long, long time for this gifted young woman to leave this defeat behind.
For, this was a day when she found the task of embracing victory beyond her, and found it easier, in the end, to resign to defeat.
Bhupathi, Likhovtseva pair beaten
Earlier, in the first match of the day at the Rod Laver Arena, Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia came back from the set down to beat India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Likhovtseva of Russia, the second seeded pair, 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(10-6) in the mixed doubles semifinals.
Bhupathi and Likhovtseva looked very much in command till midway in the second set but Ullyett and Hantuchova started returning serves better late in the set and the Indian was broken in the 10th game when both Bhupathi and Likhovtseva made volleying errors.
And in the third set first-to-10-points tiebreak shootout - there is in fact no third set, only the shootout - which is a sort of travesty in a Grand Slam event, a double fault each from Bhupathi and Likhovtseva made all the difference.
In the final match of the day at the Rod Laver Arena, Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor beat the French pair, Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro 7-6(4), 6-3 to win the men's doubles title.
The results: Women's singles final: 1-Jennifer Capriati (USA) bt 3-Martina Hingis (Sui) 4-6, 7-6(7), 6-2.
Mixed doubles semifinals: Kevin Ullyett (Zim) and Daniela Hantuchova (Svk) bt Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind) and Elena Likhovtseva (Rus) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(10-6).
Men's doubles final: Mark Knowles (Bahamas) and Daniel Nestor (Can) bt Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro (Fra) 7-6(4), 6-3.
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